Stroll follows orders but gets hit with blue flag time penalty

Williams' Lance Stroll was demoted from P13 to P14 after Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix following a 10-second time penalty handed out to the Canadian for ignoring blue flags.

After taking on fresh tyres just four laps from the end of the race, Stroll found himself in the path of Force India's Sergio Perez when he rejoined the track.

The Williams pitwall then told their driver to put in an extra effort to try and remain un-lapped by the Mexican. Stroll took that order as a priority, and ignored the blue flags for an entire lap before letting the Force India pass.

• Austrian GP: Sunday's action in pictures

"Lance went quite a long time without moving over, but he was on new tyres as well," said race director Charlie Whiting.

"One can understand that, but I think he should have moved over."

The Stewards' decision echoed Whiting's view as they subsequently decided to apply a 10-second time penalty while also adding three penalty points to Stroll's licence.

"The driver of car #18 admitted he had seen the blue flags, light panels and the light on his steering wheel," the Stewards wrote in a statement.

"He stated his team had told him to attempt to un-lap himself but had not advised him to let car #11 pass until almost one lap of flags and lights had been displayed to him.

"The reason for awarding three penalty points is that the issue of blue flags was specifically raised at the Friday night drivers’ briefing and confirmed in the race director’s notes, in particular the requirement to allow the following car to pass ‘at the first available opportunity’.

"In this instance the driver decided to give priority to the team instruction (to un-lap himself) over the regulations and the race director’s specific instructions (regarding the blue flag procedure)."

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